Saving Mel Brooks

The 41 year old marriage of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft ended in June 2005 when the actress died of uterine cancer.  In an article entitled, 'Saving Mel Brooks', the couple's son, Max Brooks, talks movingly about how he has cared for his father since he became a widower, and suggests that 'parenting a parent is a rite of passage few of us are ever truly prepared to face'.  Read the article at:
http://men.msn.com/articlemh.aspx?cp-documentid=3872768&GT1=9212.

Comments

[Nate]

I was in love with Ann Bancroft. Not the Mrs. Robinson Anne, but the woman who gave us Annie Sullivan and Anna Bronski, Ms. Nora Dinsmoor and Mrs. Kendal, and so many other unforgetable people. Of course, of all she was the most unforgetable.
Whenever I thought of her marriage to Mel Brooks I always said to myself "Huh?" And as I found out as my life progressed, my contemporaries always said the same. What a perfect couple. Jewtalians. I can only imagine the gefilte fish with a side of spaghetti.
It's funny how some people enter your lives and even though you have never met, they somehow seem to be part of your family. They could knock on the door,come in for dinner, and you'd feel right at home with them.
I know that I'm not alone in feeling this way about both Anne and Mel. What gifts to our world. I want to tell Mel that he's loved by millions and those millions loved his wife too. I wish that I could be there when that wonderful couple is reunited again. And to Max, you'll never be an only child...you have lots of brothers and sisters out here.
Two quotes attibuted to her best sum up her gift to all of us.
"I was at a point where I was ready to say I am what I am because of what I am and if you like me I'm grateful, and if you don't, what am I going to do about it?" And who didn't like her ?
And my personal favorite "The best way to get most husbands to do something is to suggest that perhaps they're too old to do it."
I think she told my wife.
May G_d bless Ms. Anne Bancroft and Mr. Mel Brooks. Their equals will not pass this way again.